MONTREAL - Taking a lesson from the Harper Conservatives' woes in the recent federal election, Liberal Premier Jean Charest campaigned on a pledge Tuesday to boost Quebec's cultural industries with tax incentives.
Charest promised to abolish the provincial sales tax of 7.5 per cent on culture-related products, which would reduce the price of a variety of cultural goods ranging from music CDs to theatre tickets.
The Liberal premier hopes to achieve in the Dec. 8 provincial election what Harper failed to do: boost his support among Quebecers and turn his minority government into a majority.
The culture issue is seen as a potential wild card, along with health care, in a provincial race where polls suggest the Liberals have a strong lead in overall support and are considered the best stewards of the economy.
Charest said it became clear during the federal election how Quebecers felt about culture.
"There's a very important signal sent in support of culture and the importance of citizens to have access to cultural products," Charest told a news conference.
Stephen Harper's Conservatives saw their hopes of a majority government dashed largely because of a revolt by Quebec voters, as culture became a key ballot-box issue in the province.
Quebec artists took to the streets to protest cuts to arts programs. Satire videos mocking the Conservatives became a YouTube phenomenon. And the Bloc Quebecois cast the issue as a matter of francophones' cultural survival.
With his campaign floundering, Harper made a mid-election pledge of $150 million in tax credits to help families enrol children in arts activities. But the political damage was already done; the heady poll numbers from early in the campaign and visions of big Quebec seat gains had already evaporated.
Charest drew parallels between Harper's woes and his own electoral frustrations in the 2007 provincial campaign.
The Liberal leader was reduced to a minority government in the last provincial election and has said repeatedly that he learned a lesson: that he had to listen better.
Charest referred specifically to the heritage portfolio, where former minister Josee Verner wound up butting heads with artists in an ill-fated public-relations battle.
He said he hopes the Tories and their new heritage minister, James Moore, draw some conclusions from the episode.
Charest added that he would be watching Wednesday's federal throne speech for signs that the feds have been swayed by public opinion.
"They -- like us in an election campaign -- received a pretty clear message," Charest said.
"The new minister, Mr. Moore, has indicated he wants to rebuild bridges . . . we hope and we expect they will hear that message and respond to it."
Charest said his cultural promise would cost the provincial treasury $50 million annually and apply to both events and material goods, ranging from movies and museum tickets, to CDs and DVDs.
When asked if a CD recorded by Celine Dion in English in Las Vegas would qualify, Charest said the eligibility rules would have to be worked out by the departments of finance, revenue and culture.
"I have no doubt that will be complicated in certain cases, but that's what it's there for," he said.
He compared the challenge for policy-makers to the labelling of domestic cheeses which include imported ingredients like olive oil. But Charest hastily added that Celine Dion was definitely a Quebecer.
He pointed out that it was a Liberal government which also took the provincial sales tax off all books in 1992.
He said the promised tax cut would be permanent and would be applied quickly in 2009 -- if the Quebec Liberals are re-elected.
A spokeswoman for the Canada Council for the Arts says other provinces offer similar tax breaks.
Grace Thrasher says New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador are among the provinces that exempt books from the retail sales tax.
"Ontario actually has (an exemption) for live theatre and other performances where 90 per cent of the performers are residents of Canada," she added.
Action democratique du Quebec Leader Mario Dumont's major announcement Tuesday was to say he would bring in independent experts to analyze infrastructure projects worth more than $100 million in order to prevent cost overruns.
Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois was talking about the environment Tuesday as she promised to hire 40 more inspectors at an annual cost of $2.5 million.
A PQ government would force businesses to use modern technology to reduce the amount of waste they spit out, she said at a campaign stop near Montreal.
It would also overhaul the province's building code to make it compulsory for companies to adopt more efficient energy standards.
